The Rev. Peter Holmer, former pastor at Joliet's largest Lutheran church, dies

Family photo

The Rev. Peter Holmer

The Rev. Peter Holmer (Family photo)

Bob GoldsboroughChicago Tribune

The Rev. Peter Martin Holmer was the senior pastor at Joliet’s largest Lutheran church for 29 years, during a period in which the church experienced significant growth and undertook two building expansions.

“He was a force of nature, and by that I mean, he just threw himself into his life, full force. And for him, that meant everything was relational, so it was about the people at the church, and it was about growth, and it was living out that relationship with God and being in relationship with one another,” said the Rev. Jennifer Beamsley, current senior pastor at St. John Lutheran Church, who worked alongside Holmer for 13 years. “He kept thinking, ‘What should we be doing next?’ He was so real, and this is the thing that people loved about Peter — he didn’t put on airs and was fully himself in whatever he did.”

Holmer, 67, died of complications from lung cancer on May 7 at Edward Hospital in Naperville, said his son, Nathan. He had been a Plainfield resident since 1989.

The son of a pastor, Holmer grew up in south suburban Harvey and then in St. Louis before moving with his parents to St. Charles when he was 9 years old. He graduated in 1968 from St. Charles High School, where he participated in theater and track, and received a bachelor’s degree in English in 1972 from Augustana College in Rock Island.

Their father had been the senior pastor at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in St. Charles for 23 years, but both Holmer and his brother, Richard, initially were resolutely against pursuing a career as a pastor. In fact, Holmer initially considered attending law school, said Richard Holmer, who is the senior pastor at St. James Lutheran Church in Lake Forest.

However, both brothers attended Yale Divinity School in Connecticut on a one-year trial program. And in the end, Holmer’s brother said with a laugh, “we both ended in a career path that neither of us had anticipated that we would follow.”

After graduating from Yale in 1976, Holmer worked as a pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Glen Ellyn for several years. He was also head pastor at First Lutheran Church in Kirkland, Ill. from 1979 until 1988.

“I remember Peter as a guy that was always an all-in guy,” said Mike Hotopp, a friend from high school and college. “When he committed to something, he went after it, and he wasn’t afraid to leave himself a bit vulnerable. In Kirkland, he took that call head-on and breathed new life into that little community. That church grew and he put an addition on to that church.”

In 1988, Holmer became the senior pastor at St. John’s in Joliet, which today has 1,600 members and an average weekly attendance of about 480. Over the next 29 years, he oversaw two building expansion projects, adding an educational wing and later enlarging the sanctuary.

Richard Holmer said one thing that he felt was integral to his brother’s ministry was that “he was always about keeping it real, honest and to tell it the way it is and not indulge in platitudes or any kind of false pieties but to be genuine.”

“He always tried to look at how faith in God intersected with life in the world and go from there,” Richard Holmer said. “I think that was always kind of the starting point for our conversations and in ministry as well, and that’s what people appreciated.”

Holmer retired from St. John in 2017. He was diagnosed with cancer at the end of March, and by that point, it had metastasized to the brain, his son said.

Holmer served as the chairperson of the board of Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, and also had been on the board of Mwangaza, a national exchange program with educational professionals in Tanzania.

“He always had an eye not only on his congregation but on the world as well,” Nathan Holmer said.

Fred Richart, a former roommate at Yale, recalled Holmer’s love of music, particularly the piano, and his enjoyment of writing music.

Holmer’s wife of 41 years, Linda, died of complications from gall bladder cancer in July. In addition to his son and brother, Holmer also is survived by two daughters, Marianne and Julia Gray; a sister, Mary Essley; and two grandchildren.